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John Reese
| last = | flashbacks = }} John, commonly known by his alias John Reese, is a presumed dead former-US Delta Force operator and CIA officer, who serves as Finch's armed-force used to stop future crimes. Biography Pre-CIA The name John Reese is an alias , but one he prefers. Over his work history, he has been U.S. Army Delta Force Operator and a CIA officer. He is listed as K.I.A. and most of his information is listed as REDACTED in The Machine's databases. According to John, he is a native of Washington State, and his military personnel file confirms he is from Puyallup, Washington and enlisted at Fort Lewis, Washington. His social security number is 380-00-0050. 1993 According to the Machine, Reese joined the military on January 15, 1993. Over the next nine years, he served four short and one long tour of duty. 1998 Possibly attained the rank of Sergeant on September 15, 1998. 2001 Reese quit the army in 2001, prior to a vacation in Mexico with his girlfriend of 6 months, Jessica Arndt. As the vacation was extended beyond the weekend, Reese surprised Jessica with the news regarding his resignation. Moments later, the two witnessed a live television report about the attacks on the World Trade Center. Jessica knew Reese as "John," yet it is not yet known what last name he went by with her. 2002 Reese officially ended his service with the military on November 20, 2002. With the CIA At one point between 2002 and 2006, Reese joined the CIA. 2006 On February 12, 2006, Reese ran into his former girlfriend Jessica at the airport, and he told her that he had found a new, secretive job. She told him that she was engaged to a man named Peter Arndt, though she would wait for him if he told her to. Without a response, she turned and left. Moments later, Reese whispered the words. Some time later, Reese then met with Kara Stanton in Hungary to interrogate two men about the whereabouts of Alim Nazir. Stanton promptly murdered them, knowing that they helped Nazir flee the country after a hefty bribe. Reese, visibly shocked, was told to dispose of the gun and bodies. Stanton reminded him that he doesn't have any old friends, including Jessica, whom Stanton had photos of from the airport. Afterward, she assigned him the cover name 'Reese'. 2008 Stanton, Reese and Mark Snow were operating illegally in New York City, holding a government employee captive after he tried to sell some software to the Chinese. When Reese was given permission to get some R&R, Stanton followed him to a bar and found him meeting with Jessica's husband Peter. She gave him a lecture, telling him that they're no longer like other people, and Reese reluctantly left with her before Jessica spotted them. 2010 Reese and Stanton were in Tétouan, Morroco, interrogating a suspect. While Stanton was busy with the suspect, Reese received a voice mail call from Jessica, who sounded distraught. Reese called her and said he'd see her within 24 hours. Later, Mark Snow and Alicia Corwin informed Reese and Stanton that they were being sent to China to retrieve a high profile Stuxnet-like computer program from the Chinese. Reese was denied his request for leave, but as Stanton left the room, he received another set of orders from Snow: retire Agent Stanton as soon as the mission was complete. The pair arrived in Ordos, and discovered the site where the program was found. Upon arrival, they discovered the corpses of many software engineers, and much of the building's servers emptied. Reese found a survivor whom Stanton conversed with in Chinese. He said that men had turned up shooting and had stolen The Machine. Upon hearing that, she promptly executed him and withheld what he'd said from Reese. With much of what they came for already taken, Reese and Stanton had no choice but to wait for their extraction at nightfall. While Stanton marked the LZ with infra-red chem-lights. Reese had readied his gun to shoot her in the back, but lowered it at the last moment, only for Stanton to turn and shoot him. She apologized, saying she had orders from Snow, and was told Reese had ties to terrorists. Reese laughed, telling her he had the same orders and that they were being set up, with the beacon actually signalling for a shelling, not extraction. Reese then made his escape, leaving Stanton standing in shock. An AC-130 spectre gunship then fired upon the beacons. The wounded Reese managed to escape the blast radius, and turned back to see the explosion supposedly killing his partner. Post-CIA 2011 In February, a wounded Reese now sporting a beard travelled to New Rochelle, NY to look for Jessica. He discovered that she had died in a car accident two months ago in December. Distraught, he broke into the Arndt residence and watched one of the videos of Jessica and her husband Peter's wedding, realising she had most likely been abused by him. When Peter comes home, Reese confronted the man who he held responsible for her death and attacked him. Reese later began to live anonymously in a homeless encampment. Working with Finch 2011 Deteriorating mentally and physically, a bearded, homeless Reese was attacked on a subway by a gang. Disarming and defeating them with no effort, Reese was taken into custody. Finch's men collected Reese from the precinct, but not before Reese's prints were run through the database. He was taken to the Queensboro Bridge, where Finch offered Reese the chance to prevent crimes and murders before they happen. Though he refused at first, Reese soon changed his mind when Finch forced him into a situation where he'd be helpless to prevent a murder from happening. Finch introduced Reese to the Machine — a device Finch built for the government after 9/11, which detected terrorist activity as well as other 'irrelevant' crimes by using thousands of cameras and an advanced database. It would give them a list comprised of Social Security numbers, each belonging to a person involved in a violent crime - either the victim or the perpetrator. Upon the completion of his first case, Reese managed to recruit Detective Lionel Fusco, a dirty cop who would become a useful asset. As Reese took on more cases regarding these Persons of Interest, he caught the attention of Detective Joss Carter, a homocide detective who Reese had met after the subway attack. He also caught the attention of the CIA, his former organization which had presumed him dead until his prints had been run by Carter. 2012 At the end of , a drugged Finch expressed his willingness to answer the questions that Reese has about his employer's past. Reese refused to take advantage of Finch's state to satisfy his curiosity. Awards and Decorations and both offer a glimpse of Reese's uniform. The following are the awards and decorations visible on it, in order of precedence: Left side: Right side: *Reese's regimental crest *Army Meritorious Unit Commendation *Reese's name plate Sleeve: *Army Ranger Tab *Army Special Forces Tab *Airborne Tab Notes *One of his medals is the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), awarded between January 17, 1991 and February 28, 1991. From this is can be concluded that Reese served during Operation Desert Storm. *To enter the Army Special Forces, one must be 20 years old. *According to the Machine, Reese joined the military on January 15, 1993, though the ribbons on his uniform show that he joined the military a few years earlier (either 1989 or 1990). *Even though John is former Delta Force prior to joining the CIA, his uniform seen in only shows he has the Army Special Forces tabs. If he was Delta Force he'd have an Airborne Tab in black-and-red and a spear shaped tab, much like the Special Forces tab, but instead of blue-and-gold it would be red-and-black with no thunderbolts covering the black dagger. These two tabs along with his Ranger and Special Forces tab should be on his uniform if he was Delta Force. This may be that John was still in Army Special Forces prior too 9-11, and joined Delta Force somewhere between 2001-2006. Trivia *For his birthday in 2012, Finch gave Reese an apartment at 810 Baxter Street, Apartment 5A. *The prefix in his social security number (380) suggests that Reese received his SSN from Michigan. Reese Reese Reese Reese